I am delighted that one of my favorite lyrics from the song appear in the video pic above.
You say the magic’s gone – I’m no magician.
You say the spark’s gone – well, get an electrician.
Awesome, awesome, and just how I like it: Regardless of the misery you are in, never lose you humor!
Speaking of misery: My cold has gotten worse today. My arms, legs, and back hurt all the time, I got fever now, and my head cannot decide whether to implode or explode – well, this way, it stays at its place, at least. I am very thankful for the care that speaks from your comments on my last post, and your great suggestions. However, with regard to how I feel today, there was no thinking of exercise, and despite a 20 minutes drag to the grocery store and back, I was happy not to move at all.
I spent the day in my bed and in the bathtub , and later I moved to the living room and did some piano playing, reading, and drawing. Eats were light and far from special, since my head was not willing to show any creativity at all. So, this is the perfect day to post one the recipes I recently made and have not posted yet.
As I have written a while ago, my cooking style can be described as throwing everything into a single pan. I use to make single servings and eat everything up at once, and a few hours later, I will do the same thing again. This way, I almost never do any cooking in advance, unless I know I will be away for the complete day – then I fry a pound of chicken breast filets at 7 am and throw them all into a lunchbox, alongside with a bunch of vegetables and a handful of almonds.
While my cooking style is perfectly alright, given my current life conditions (I spend a lot of time at home, working on my diploma thesis, giving piano lessons every now and then, and doing stuff), it sometimes annoys me for the following reasons:
I am inflexible. Since I do not eat most grains, I cannot simply make a quick sandwich or have a bowl of cereal if I am hungry, but always need to cook something. (The only “quick food” for me is a green smoothie, that is something at least!)
I eat very much the same all the time – stir fries, stir fries, stir fries.
It impairs my creativity in the kitchen. There are many recipes I would love to try, but which take quite a lot of preparation time. Usually, I start cooking when I get hungry, and this means I do not want to wait for an hour, but have something ready within 15 minutes. And, for ecological reasons, I really do not see the point in preheating my oven and then bake a single serving of something for 40 minutes or longer if I can have it ready in the pan in a fraction of that time.
With cooking in advance, though, these things would not happen.
I would have something to eat at hand every time.
I could try a wider range of recipes, and thus have a bigger variety of dishes. Moreover, I would also make more meatless side dishes to please my vegetarian and vegan readers.
I would not have to mind about preparation times. You can justify 40 minutes of oven roasting if you get several servings from it, no? Plus, you can roast several things in your oven at once!
Oh, and did I mention that I do not have any problems to eat the same things over and over again?
Why do I not do it, then? Well, I think it is mostly laziness, mind clutter (thus, not thinking of food when I am not actually hungry), and bad organization (cooking in advance calls for planning). And you know that I am not the best when it comes to just doing something – in many different regards. Fear also plays a role.
Fear, you ask? Sure! For a coward by disposition, new things tend to be scary, and cooking several servings at once is unknown territory for me. Thank goodness, I have some fellow bloggers who already did/do it and, without knowing, improve my confidence about it. And while I am still frightened by the thought of a whole chicken, I think chicken drumsticks are something I can handle.
~ I made them in my new cast-iron pot ~
Okay, my dear vegetarian and vegan readers , this one might not be for you, but the seasoning was awesome, and I think it might work with tofu as well, if you first fry the tofu in a little oil (which was unnecessary with the chicken drumsticks because the skin contained sufficient fat) and then roast it with the spices for 10 minutes or so.
Speaking of the seasoning: I used lavender for this dish, and liked it a lot! The dried lavender blossoms are tea actually (at least I got them from the tea shelf at the organic supermarket), but I though they would make a nice seasoning as well.
Juniper, Rosemary, and Lavender Roasted Chicken Drumsticks
4 servings
Ingredients
4 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp juniper berries
1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
1/2 tbsp dried lavender
4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slices
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Directions
Put the chicken drumsticks into a pot and cover them with garlic slices and spices. Heat carefully to let them roast a little, then fill a little water into the pot (so that the water stands as high in the pot as two fingers are wide). Bring to boil, then simmer covered and at low to medium heat for about an hour – the water will be cooked away afterwards. Serve hot and enjoy. Leftovers will stay fresh in the fridge for a few days.
Do you cook in advance? Do you have any recipes to share that are good to make in advance? Is there a dish you like a lot that only pays the effort if you make several servings at once?
